


Time and Again

by likeasouffle



Category: Glee, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alcohol, Doppelganger, Gen, Humor, Non-Graphic Violence, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 16:19:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6527206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeasouffle/pseuds/likeasouffle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara and Ms. Grant have always found each other weirdly familiar. It turns out Brittany’s time machine works.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time and Again

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to wowbright and brianwilly for betaing!
> 
>  
> 
> [Tumblr link](http://likearumchocolatesouffle.tumblr.com/post/142635700135/fic-time-and-again)

“Ms. Grant–”

“Shut the door,” Cat said without bothering to look up at Kara, who was stumbling in through the big glass office door, arms full of papers.

“Is… everything okay?” Kara did as she was told, nudging the door shut with her shoulder. “If this is about your lunch order earlier, I can explain–”

Cat cut her off with a wave of her hand and stood to gather two glasses and a bottle of champagne from the cabinet. “Nevermind that. We have something more important to discuss.” She poured the glasses and pushed one across her desk. “Sit. Drink.” Cat sat and took a long swallow from her own glass. “And put that nonsense down, it’s the end of the day. If it was urgent you’d have blurted it out already.”

“Oh, oh… kay.” Kara found a clear space at the edge of the desk for the papers in her arms, then sat stiffly across from Cat and took a tentative sip. “What’s the occasion?”

Cat sighed and swirled her glass. “I’m not entirely certain of the date, but I’m 87 percent sure this is the exact day, twenty-five years ago, when I stopped being a naive little know-it-all cheerleader from Ohio, and I suddenly just… arrived, in the big city. I found myself in a place and time and circumstance that I had no way to get out of, and… everything you see before you grew from that. 

Kara nodded uncertainly. “So, we’re celebrating the anniversary of you… moving to Metropolis?”

Cat smiled a bitter smile and said, “Toasting the death of my old life.” She took another sip. “You know, you remind me of someone I knew back then. You didn’t used to sing and wear stupid hats did you?”

Kara brightened. “I don’t know what kind of hats you think are stupid but I _did_ used to want to be a singer.” She grinned. “I was in my school’s glee club, it was so much fun. I even wrote some of the songs we sang in competitions.” Her eyes widened and she hastily added: “Of course you’re thinking of someone else because you’re way too old to – I mean I’m not saying you’re _old_ but–”

“Hmm. Maybe you have a doppelganger.” Cat drank, and peered at Kara over her glass. “Incidentally, can you think of any reason why a person would not only move to an entirely new place but also change her name to something completely different?” 

Kara swallowed. “Um. Witness protection program...?”

“Interesting. I would have thought most people’s minds would go to escaping the law. Or hiding a secret superhero identity.”

Kara laughed awkwardly. “Well I mean, how many people are actually superheroes? Not that many. Way more people change their name than that. Probably. I’m assuming.”

“Mm. In any case, we’re getting off topic. I used to have this friend – not the one with the stupid hats, a different friend – who was the reason I ended up here in the first place. She said amazing things were about to happen. She told me I was _going_ places, that I was going to do something no one had ever done before… I didn’t believe her. But she was right.”

“Wow, she must have been a really good friend. She sounds really encouraging.”

Cat frowned. “That’s one way to put it. Another way would be that she used me as a guinea pig to test a far-fetched theory, and didn’t think through what would happen if it actually _worked_. Yes, I’m the most successful woman CEO in North America, and yes, up until a few years ago my intuition regarding news, media, and fashion bordered on precognition it was so accurate, thus cementing my reputation as the person to go to for up-to-the-minute news journalism and celebrity gossip speculation. But at _what cost?_ I had a _life,_ Keira. I had _plans_ , and _friends,_ and a _future_ , which actually took place _in the future,_ I might add, and yes I’ve had a lot of time to adjust but every year it all comes crashing back, the could-have-beens and the never-weres, and the only solution is to get mind-numbingly drunk as quickly as possible. So, cheers. Cat Grant has too much class to drink alone.”

\--

“Hello?”

“Is this Brittany Pierce?”

“Yes? Who’s this?”

“How old are you?”

“Huh?”

“Are you 19 yet?”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell my age to strangers on the phone.”

“Listen to me, this is important. _Have you sent Kitty Wilde through time yet._ ”

“Wait, are you saying it worked? Are you calling from the future to tell me it worked?!”

“I’m calling you from _right now_ to tell you you sent me to the _past_ with no way back you heartless–”

“ _Oh my god!”_

“–good for nothing–”

“It worked! Santana, it worked!”

“–I am going to rip your eyeballs from their sockets and shove them down your–”

[click]

“Hello? Hello?”

\--

The next day, Ms. Grant arrived at work at her usual time, took her latte from Kara, took off her sunglasses, and sat down at her desk as if everything was completely normal and absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened the previous evening. Kara scurried over to Winn’s desk and whispered out of the corner of her mouth: “Something very weird is going on with Ms. Grant. Meet me in our secret place in half an hour.”

But before they had a chance to do that, the office was slammed with emergency reports about some “barbarian-like warriors” who had appeared in the middle of a busy downtown street by way of a “shimmery blue portal” and started terrorizing drivers and smashing anything shiny. Ms. Grant sent a whole team of reporters to find out more, along with James to take some Pulitzer-worthy photos from as close up as possible.

Winn protested a bit. “Is that, you know… safe? It sounds like it’s pretty intense out there.”

Ms. Grant shrugged. “Probably just some World of Warcraft cosplayers who got a little too serious about their aesthetic. Where the hell is Keira? This phone isn’t going to answer itself.” But Kara was already in the air, seconds from the scene. 

\--

After she arrived and subdued the confused warriors, who didn’t appear to know English or recognize modern technology, Kara flew over to James for a strategy meeting. He was crouching behind a row of newspaper boxes with his camera peeking above.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. They’re really… breakable. I’m trying to just knock them out and not actually, you know, kill them, but I’m pretty sure they’re just regular humans. It’s hard to be gentle while dodging axes.”

“Are you sure you remember what a regular human is?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. They don’t have super strength or speed, or alien tech–”

“Shimmery blue portal notwithstanding...”

“–And I feel like if I smashed their heads together too hard they’d just, you know…”

“Squish.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what to do. I called Alex, she and Hank are on their way over to transport them to the DEO for containment, at least until we figure out who they are and what they want.”

A vaguely familiar voice from behind them said: “You might not have to do that.”

Kara whirled around in a defensive stance, then dropped her fists to her sides. “Brittany?!”

Brittany stared at her in confusion for a moment, looking her up and down, then beamed at her. “Marley?! I love your hair!”

\--

In the end, the problem was easy to fix. Brittany had simply gotten excited about her time machine working and decided to try it again, but by bringing something to the present this time. Once she realized how not-good that was, she just sent the warriors away again.

Kara eyed the time machine remote control warily. “And you’re _certain_ they're back in their original time and place, right?”

Brittany shrugged. “Sure.”

Cat had a long conversation with Brittany out on the Tribune balcony, and seemed to forgive her, as far as Kara could tell. Not that she was eavesdropping or anything. The superhearing is just really hard to turn off. The most confusing part was something about: “Do you think I should introduce them? Would _you_ want to meet your real father, if he was your age and looked exactly like you?”

When they came out of the office, Kara looked around the room and failed spectacularly at pretending she hadn’t heard anything. But Ms. Grant didn’t seem to care. In fact she looked refreshed, more at ease than she had in a long time.

Brittany stopped on her way out. “Are you sure you don’t want to come back and visit? For old time’s sake? We can get there instantly.”

Cat shook her head. “No thanks. I don’t trust that thing. But I’ll take a vacation there sometime, when I have a slow week. I have a few things to say to Sue.”

Brittany smiled. “She’ll be so jealous. She’s always wanted to be young and old at the same time.”

They exchanged a quick hug. “Have a safe trip back. And no more summoning ancient armies to my city.”

“Deal.”

\-- 

After Kara had said goodbye to Brittany (and told her she'd consider her invitation to team up as superheroes – "Remember, it's The Human Brain," Brittany said), she immediately called Ryder.

"I'm sorry it's been so long. I have important news about my boss, the scary one who insults me just like Kitty used to. And more importantly, you know your weird doppelganger I told you about? Well, you might want to sit down for this..."

 


End file.
